Studying Social Science Using E Tools
- 1. Studying Social Science using e-Tools: Cases of South Korea & Taiwan Chien-leng HsuWCU Webometrics InstituteYeungNam University
- 2. About this presentationE-researchDevelopment in Social ScienceResearch examplesWCU Webometrics InstituteCase 1: Network of politicians in TaiwanCase 2: Network of MPs in South Korea
- 3. What is E-Research?A minor but growing approachThe use of new digital toolsE-research in Social Sciencedevelopment of online tools to automate the research processExperimentation with new types of data visualisation
- 4. Automation of the research process
- 5. Communicion
- 7. Data collection & analysis
- 12. Multimedia & dynamic representationDevelopment in Social science (1/2)Gary King (Harvard University, Miller Converse Lecture Series talk, 2009)The next 50 years: spectacular increase in new data sourceImproved, expanded & appliedIn depth studies of individual places, people, eventsAggregate government statisticsSurvey researchData everywhere – the growing InternetThe replication movement – academic data sharingAdvances in statistical methods, informatics & software
- 13. Development in Social science (2/2)ExamplesOpinions of activistsSample of a few thousand interviews ↪millions of political opinions every day in blogosphere Social contactsAsking respondents to recall names over past years↪ emails, SMSs, social media connections, etcProgress in the new data-rich worldLarge-scale, interdisciplinary researchComputer-assisted & quantitativeNew statistical methods & engineering required
- 14. New Types of data (examples)Unstructured text: emails, web pagesGeographic location: mobiles Social media: facebook, twitter, virtual worldsWeb surfing artifacts: clicks, searchesGovernment data: electronic dataScholarly data
- 15. Research Areas (examples)Semantic contextModern text mining approaches to ancient textsE-linguisticsData management/digital archiveVisualisation of dialectologyDigital arts & humanities
- 16. WCU Webometrics instituteProjectInvestigating Internet-based Politics with E-Research ToolsObjectsTo identify, track & analyse the effectiveness of networked political campaigns across a range of web platforms in KoreaTo develop software tool Major areasSemantic Networks on Political WebosphereCyworldTwitterKorean Internet Network Miner (tool)Websitehttp://english-webometrics.yu.ac.kr/
- 17. Network of Politicians in TaiwanCase 1
- 18. Brief background informationProgressive groups use more alternative mediaPolitical struggle between two political campsConservative: pro-unification with China (Leader: KMT)Progressive: pro-independence (Leader: DPP)Approx 80% of mainstream media is biasd toward the conservativesResearch targets:PoliticiansPlurkMicroblogging sites:a mini form of traditional blogs. Microblogging allows users to send brief messages
- 19. What is PlurkA popular microblogging site in TaiwanNo. of Taiwanese user - 249,441 (July 2009)25K10K10K5K03/09
- 20. Results & FindingsProgressive politicians use more Plurk
- 22. Conservative: 7 politiciansQuestion:DOES AGE MATTER?
- 23. Age:Progressives vs ConservativesProgressive PoliticiansConservatives Politicians
- 24. Exception: Hsieh & SuSuHsiehProfile viewsNumber of friendsNumber of fans
- 25. DiscussionsHsieh & Su: Candidates for the presidential election 2008Progressive politicians use PlurkExpress their opinionCultivate new constituenciesLink to opinion leaders of Taiwanese grassroot groupsThe ‘rich get richer’ phenomenonPlurkers that are the target of many visitors are disproportionately likely to be targeted by any new visitors
- 26. Case 2Network of MPs in South korea
- 27. Web 1.0, Web 2.0 &TwitterResearch purpose:To investigate structural changes in hyperlink networks from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 in South Korean PoliticsUnits of analysis: Congress members of South KoreaYear of observations:Web 1.0: homepage, 2000 & 2001Web 2.0: blogs, 2005 & 2006Twitter: 2009
- 28. Blue: GNP: Conservative: OppositionRed: MDP: Liberal: RulingWeb 1.0: Homepage 2000 vs 2001Star networks without any isolation
- 29. Web 2.0: Blogs 2005 vs 200620052006
- 30. Twitter
- 31. Web 1.0, Web 2.0 &Twitter
- 32. Web 1.0, Web 2.0 & TwitterWeb 1.0: Hub, but sparse networkWeb 2.0: Hub disappearing, but becoming denseTwitter: similar to Web 2.0 structure, and denserMore to work (example):To compare top 10 politicians ego-networks and investigate how they change
- 33. ConclusionsPrevious research:Results from web data are informativeThe Web reflects situations in the physical worldThe validity of the results need to be supported by various qualitative studiesFurther research:Previous study areas are still ongoingCyber emotions: online image content analysis of web 2.0 politics
- 34. Thank you AcknowledgmentsWCU Webometrics Institute acknowledges that this research is supported from the WCU project - investigating internet-based politics using e-research tools granted from South Korean Government